Edge Theatre’s VIV! is Extraordinary Glimpse into Vivien Leigh’s World

Jim Tomanney has penned a delightfully delicious eighty-minute one-act play for his Edge Theatre called Viv! (The Story Behind the Legend of Vivien Leigh) focusing on the life and times of the late great Vivien Leigh who died at the age of 54 of tuberculosis in 1967. Mr. Tomanney’s thoroughly entertaining script is expressive, informative, evocative, and full of so many juicy morsels that it almost plays as a tabloid piece, Ms. Leigh herself divulging sordid and sensual details of her affairs and sexual innuendos. Touching also on what we now called a bi-polar mental disease, she courageously tells us about her episodes and the embarrassment they used to cause her, particularly when reading about them in other people’s memoirs or accounts. She sets the record straight and candidly confesses her life to us.

The play begins with a young and handsome actor named Robert Strong who has been a lifelong fan of Ms. Leigh. He summons her to his apartment in Greenwich Village, also known as his “shrine to Vivien Leigh,” through some incantations over the Ouija board and—voila!—Ms. Leigh appears in all of her glory! She fabulously dominates the stage for the remainder of the piece.

Tyrrell Woolbert as Vivien Leigh, James R. Monaghan as Robert Strong (Photo by Tommy Lyles of Signal2Noise)

Tyrrell Woolbert so extraordinarily inhabits the persona of Lady Olivier that this is the closet you will ever get to spending an evening with one of the most revered legendary actresses in the history of film. Can we talk tour de force powerhouse performance here? Yes we can! Ms. Woolbert does not lose a beat traveling from sexual escapade to Shakespeare monologue to thoughts about her breathtaking beauty. Brava!

James R. Monaghan as Robert Strong is handsome and charming as the fan who finally conjures Ms. Leigh back to the living.